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Topic: Coating cheese (Read 1611 times)

I'm living in Holland, in a small town close to Gouda, the city that gives it's name to the world famous Gouda cheese. I'm a hobby cheesemaker for two years now and I make a lot of different types of Gouda and other semi hard cheeses, as well as cheeses like feta, brie and cambozola. I have access to raw milk from goats and cows, directly from the farm. In an other thread and different subject I mentioned that most Gouda cheeses here, artisan, home made and factory made, are not waxed or vacuum sealed, but coated with a plastic coating. I have very good results with that myself, I uses with most cheeses 2 layers of yellow coating, on the second layer a stick a label while the coating is still wet and I finish it with a third transparent layer.For cheeses like Cabra al Vino I use three layers of the transparent coating. Most of the times the cheeses are coated 3 times within a week after brining or production. After brining I let them air-dry and turn them twice a day and when the bottom is almost dry after half a day, it's time for the first coating.Handled this way, the cheeses are very easy to clean with a soft cloth and some water with vinegar. Aging is going very well this way, and to be honest, if there would be problems with aging, I don't think it would be applied commercially.I'm surprised to hear on different forums that this way of preserving cheese is almost unknown in the US and Canada, but somebody pointed me to Paracoat from the Diary Connection. This seems to be very much the same as the stuff I'm using. If people have questions about how to apply, where I buy it, or other matters, I will be pleased to try to answer them...

That is a standard PVA cheese coating. It is also used under wax, meaning the cheese is painted and then waxed. This is done for two reasons, first if done to a swiss it gives you a very flexible robust coating that can withstand the hot room. The second is that all of the PVAs I'm familiar with contain natamycin, a presertaive and mold inhibitor. It keeps anything from growing underneath it.

Because I'm not familiar with waxing, I don't understand what is the use of combining the two, so I would be happy if that can be explained. To my experiences it can be quite a job to peel of one thin layer of coating, three can be peeled of nice and easy when the cheese is at room temperature.Apparently there is a slight difference in what is available here: Some suppliers offer two types of coating, one with extra protection to mold and one without....

Waxed cheeses can develope mold under the wax, using a coating acts as an insurance to prevent it.I wonder how commerical cheeses sold indevidually (small wheels of baby guada for example) ensures the consumer doesnt eat the rind (with coating)? is there a direction on the label to peel the layer?

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Amatuar winemaker,baker, cook and musician not in any particular order.

Ok Tomer1, but why wax them also instead of coating then 3 times? And believe me, there's hardly any chance that people eat the plastic rind, it's too obvious it's a coating. On the other hand: In supermarkets or cheese shops here, you can buy your cheese cut into thin slices. Before you put that on a sandwich, you have to remove the plastic yourself, but I know from experience, when you forget that you will notice with the first bite